Rating: Summary: THIS LONG AND WINDING ROAD IS TOO LONG Review: A crackpot in a clown suit hijacks a bus full of mentally and physically challenged children. He forces the driver at gun point to take the bus to a deserted bunker. Several children are killed by the maniacal clown; the driver herself faces death on more than one occasion.A local police officer who has a 4-year-old daughter has a special interest in the case; in addition to being a single parent, she feels a kinship to every child on that bus. The questions that really arise throughout this tediously written and overly long, drawn out account are 1) who is the clown and what is his agenda and 2) what is the agenda of the towns folk in positions of power? Summed up, there is a lot of under the table dealing and some very questionable people involved. The story was good, but it was not well edited and dragged on for a very long time. Half the pages could have been used to tell the story. That aside, it's something that most folks will probably enjoy. It sure beats television.
Rating: Summary: Terrific - when is his next novel due out!! Review: I read the book in less than 2 days - record time for me - this is movie material!
Rating: Summary: incredible suspense, excellent ending. Review: I read the book in two days. I just had to find out how Ellen Camacho and the Las Cruces Police were going to get this DeVries guy. I was talking about the book for weeks. Well, as you can tell, I still am! It would make an excellent movie
Rating: Summary: Who Cares?! Review: It amazes me that a book can have a storyline such as this one (mad man kidnaps a bus full of handicapped children and begins killing them off) and be so NOT moving. For starters, Fox chooses to rely on a couple of cheap cliches to drive his story. First off, the main plot centers not on the children, but on the cop trying to solve the case. Cliche number one: this cop is a woman. Cliche number two: this cop is also a mother. Cliche number three: woman cop was abused by ex-husband and is now dating chief of police. Cliche number four: FBI big men come in (behaving stereotypically as if they believe themselves to be better then the cops) and cheesy romance between woman cop and FBI G-man develops. This lame main storyline is surprising considering that Fox has obviously done his research when it comes to the kidnapper's pathology. He is a unique character who destroys all preconceived ideas about him along the way. Bottom line, not enough time was spent on developing the characters of the children or their bus driver, kidnapped along with them (most of the kids don't even get names) to care other than in the most detached way, when the kidnapper starts killing them. Woman cop was too cliche for me to care. Thus, I read the whole book which granted was suspenseful enough not to want to put down, without really caring about anyone in it at all.
Rating: Summary: Did I read the same book??? Review: Just a quick note because I don't want to spend any more time thinking about this book, but I can't believe some of the reviews I have seen regarding "All Fall Down." I just finished it over the weekend, and while I will admit that it has the basics for an exciting thrilling read, I thought the writing was HORRIBLE. The story itself is pretty routine, but that wasn't a problem because at least it was well thought out. I couldn't believe, however, how many ridiculous plot elements were included that needn't have been. And the characters are only given the appearance of emotional depth. I couldn't care less about any of them; they were all stupid and ridiculous to me. I was upset because I felt 100 pages could have been dropped from this book without losing one important story or character element. I wanted it to end because while I did want to know what happened and how it all turned out, I couldn't bear having to sit through the authors excessive, repetitive description and questioning. He was dealing with the same emotional problems around page 400 that he dealt with around page 200, and it was annoying. None of this takes into account a romantic subplot that made me want to throw up. The author obviously has an eye for a decent (if not already used) storyline, and his attempt to create an interesting villain a la Hannibal Lecter is commendable, but the writing is piss-poor.
Rating: Summary: There's nothing like a good villain Review: The sociopath has become increasingly popular after Thomas Harris introduced us to Hannibal Lecter in his two seminal novels; The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon. Yet creating a good and believable character that is truly outside of the accepted limits of society remains a hard task.
Zachary Fox pulls it off with Lowell DeVries in All Fall Down.
He is such an interesting character that you actually find yourself rooting for him, although he is a complete and utter monster. And as we all know, it's really the villains that make a yarn such as this fun. The good guys are destined to win, of course, so let's make the obstacle course a hard one.
Fox does this in All Fall Down which is one of the better thrillers to come along this year. Don't begin reading it unless you're prepared to spend the night finishing it.
Rating: Summary: WHAT A WILD RIDE! Review: This book was one of the those hijacking novels where there is pure suspense throughout the whole book and there are to rest stops along the way. A psychopath dresses up in a clown suit and hijacks a school bus and holds the kids hostage until he gets paid $20 million dollars. The FBI and the local police are called in to help. Can the FBI and the cops save the children in time? Can they stop this madman before more innocents lives are killed? Note- start this novel on Friday night, because you will be reading it the whole weekend. It is too good to stop.
Rating: Summary: Extremely realistic plot Review: This is a sensational book about kidnapping a bus full of disabled school children. All the children will be killed in 38 hours if the demands are not met. I liked this book as the author isn't afraid to let his villain be evil in the fact that he kills a child during the bus hijacking lets the reader know this isn't going to be a soppy Disney type book where the hero saves all and no one is hurt. No this book is a true thriller where you know the clock is counting down for the main hero character a female detective who must work out where the children are and what the kidnapper is really after. This is an extremely realistic well written book. This could easily happen in the non fiction world which is why you won't be able to put this book down.
Rating: Summary: Extremely realistic plot Review: This is a sensational book about kidnapping a bus full of disabled school children. All the children will be killed in 38 hours if the demands are not met. I liked this book as the author isn't afraid to let his villain be evil in the fact that he kills a child during the bus hijacking lets the reader know this isn't going to be a soppy Disney type book where the hero saves all and no one is hurt. No this book is a true thriller where you know the clock is counting down for the main hero character a female detective who must work out where the children are and what the kidnapper is really after. This is an extremely realistic well written book. This could easily happen in the non fiction world which is why you won't be able to put this book down.
Rating: Summary: A great book to read when there is no Literature around. Review: While the main plot of this novel is exciting, the sub-plots inter-woven make it a more laborious read than it should have been. The author seemed duty bound to include a romantic interest that was poorly done. The writing style is good, the storyline acceptable but the editing that left in all the unnecessary sub-pots leaves much to be desired. The violence seemed gratuitious at times simply to shock the reader into "enjoying" the novel more. Overall, the book is worth reading but many will find themselves skipping multiple pages at times to get back to the core story.
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